Emergency dentistry is a specialty dedicated to treating severe and possibly life-threatening dental problems requiring immediate medical attention. Dental emergencies are scary and overwhelming, like all other medical emergencies.
More About Emergency Dentistry
A big challenge of dental emergencies is identifying which problem calls for immediate dental attention. As the line between a typical oral problem and an emergency is blurry, dentist has had a major challenge in educating patients on oral emergencies.
There are some questions you can address to know whether you have an urgent oral problem or not:
- Are you in pain? – Different pain levels should hint to you how critical your condition is. It is an automatic emergency if the pain is excruciating and unbearable.
- Are you bleeding? – bleeding in the mouth is rare. The mouth has a mechanism to control any bleeding. Therefore, if you notice a lot of blood in your mouth, talk to a dentist as soon as possible.
- Do you have a loose tooth – teeth are the common parts of the oral cavity that fall off when there is a problem. Consider it an oral emergency if your teeth are shaky or have already fallen off.
Common Types Of Dental Emergencies
The Dental Association has taken time to outline some dental problems that are considered critical and urgent. The most common ones include the following:
- Excessive bleeding can be from an open wound, inner cheeks, or gum tissue. Talk to a dentist immediately if the bleeding is beyond what you can manage.
- Excruciating pain – beyond your capacity to withstand is not something you should condone. It puts a strain on your entire oral cavity, your head, as well as your entire body.
- Swelling – a swell on the wounded part of your mouth cannot worry you. However, if the inflammation spreads to other parts of your body, like your head, shoulders, and neck, you need a dentist immediately.
- Missing tooth – if a dentist did not professionally extract your tooth, there is no reason you should be losing your adult teeth. Call a dentist as soon as that happens.
- Significant oral infection can manifest in the form of a mouth sore, gum disease, tongue sores, tonsillitis, or an abscessed tooth, to mention a few.
5 Benefits Of Emergency Dental Care
This specialty of dentistry has benefited patients in some of the following ways:
- Immediate medical assistance – if you want a promise of zero wait time, count on emergency dental facilities. Dental experts respond as soon as possible to different patients, regardless of their oral problems.
- Preventing progression – a dental emergency has a high potential for escalating. If anything, the reason that it is an emergency is that the oral problem is severe. Allowing it to progress further will only cause more damage. Besides, any infection can increase the risk of damaging your oral cavity, sabotaging the healthy parts. This is one of the primary reasons you need to rely on a dentist near you when you have a dental emergency.
- Alleviating pain, swelling, and discomfort – a swollen and painful spot in any part of your body, can hold you back from enjoying life, let alone one in your oral cavity. Such pain can cause you to starve yourself because of the discomfort of eating. If you have nothing else to be grateful for about emergency dentistry services, you may find this as a ground-holding reason.
- Monitoring and evaluation – while this is a general dentistry service, you can enjoy it in emergency dental care. Emergency dentists monitor and evaluate the state of your oral cavity to ensure that everything is functioning as it should. Following a traumatic incident, it is important for a dentist to monitor your oral cavity and facial features.
- Salvaging teeth – teeth make an import at part of the oral cavity. You are at a very high risk of losing one or multiple teeth during dental emergencies. Fortunately, the sooner you get to a dental facility, the higher the chances of having your teeth saved and restored.